Panda Eyes
by suzienowhere
Summary: Hikari thinks Mio is working too hard to keep the team together. Mio thinks the same about Hikari.


**Author's Note:** Written for **zarahjoyce** on Tumblr, who wanted a fic about Hikari and Mio supporting each other/taking care of the rest of the team. It's up to you how shippy you want it to be.

Panda Eyes

Kagura helped Mio and Wagon get lunch on the table. Everyone knew when Kagura had been trying to cook, because she could never cut vegetables into nice even pieces, and she was good at cutting her fingers too. She cried out and Mio went to put a blue sticky plaster over the wound. While everyone ate, Tokacchi asked why Mio always bought the blue ones. She said it was so that Kagura would notice if one of them peeled off from her finger and into the food. Tokacchi sulked for the rest of the afternoon. Hikari was the only other person who knew why. He took over Tokacchi's chores, because Tokacchi obviously wasn't going to do them, and Hikari supposed it must be hard for Tokacchi to feel like Mio wasn't noticing him. Probably. Hikari could not remember if he had ever felt strongly enough about a girl to understand.

Right came in with his jeans completely bare at the knees, blood oozing through the shredded fibres. It must have hurt but he was smiling, chattering away to Kagura; who was sniffing loudly and clinging onto his arm. He didn't need to worry anyway because as soon as he walked through the door of Red Ressha, Mio was all over him with baby wipes and bandages and something in a bottle that made him cringe with pain when she used it on his skin. He cried a little then, but she brought him some painkillers and a drink, and within an hour he was running around again. When Hikari tried to help her put the first aid box away, she said "No, it's fine. Why don't you take a break?" He wondered what it was that she thought he needed a break from.

Hikari needed to brush his teeth before bedtime. He found blood over the sink, drying onto the taps. There was something frothy around the basin, probably soap; turning pink where it mixed in with the blood. He went to get a cloth and the stuff they used for cleaning the bathroom. When the sink was clean again he went back into the main room and saw Tokacchi sitting at one of the tables, the others gathered around him. The lenses of Tokacchi's glasses were a little foggy, and he had Mio's blue sticky plasters all across his face.

"What happened?" Hikari asked.

"Tokacchi's been –" Kagura was trying not to giggle, but she wasn't holding it back very well, "Tokacchi's been shaving!"

"What?"

Hikari knew that most men shaved. He'd seen razor blades on sale at the drugstore, but shaving was for when you were older; grown up. He had never had any hair on his face to shave off, and Tokacchi didn't have any either.

"Tokacchi doesn't need to shave," said Mio. She looked at Right, then at Hikari, "I don't want you two trying to do this. You'll just hurt your faces."

"Why would I want to?" Hikari said. "Only older people have to –"

He stopped as he realised why Tokacchi might have been attracted to the idea of shaving. Tokacchi went to his room without saying another word.

Hikari went to leave for his own room, but before he could reach the doorway, Mio caught his arm.

"Do you want some milk?" she said. "It'll help you sleep."

"You told us not to drink anything when it's late," said Hikari. There had been a couple of times when he'd had to help her wash Right's sheets in the night. She didn't need to tell Hikari not to say anything, and he mostly felt sorry for Right anyway. Apparently that was how Right's body dealt with stress.

"I know, but – you look exhausted. You have eyes like a panda."

Hikari wondered if that meant he looked ugly. He touched his hand to his face, feeling suddenly self-conscious, and it was enough for him to allow her to lead him through to the kitchen and pour him a glass of milk.

When she came to sit at the kitchen table beside him, he said "You can't be everybody's big sister all the time."

"You need to sleep properly. If you're tired when we're fighting, you'll get hurt," said Mio.

"Aren't _you_ tired?" he said. "Don't you ever get tired of taking care of us?"

After a moment of silence, she said "You would take over if I couldn't be there. That's why I don't have to worry about it."

He was not sure how true that was. He couldn't picture himself cleaning up everyone's cuts and scrapes, or being able to cook, or making soothing drinks at bedtime, or sorting out fights patiently; all the many other little things Mio did. Hikari did not feel quite grown up yet and he was not sure that any of the others did, despite Tokacchi's efforts at shaving. Maybe not even Mio was as grown up as she wanted to be. That was fine. They would all grow up together, just like they were always supposed to.

He finished the milk, which was the most he could do for her now, and he was pleased when she smiled at him.

"Will you help me in the morning?" she asked.

"Yes."

Hikari went to bed, because he would rather that she didn't think he looked like a panda.


End file.
